Category Archives: Motivational

Art Journal Thursday #22

Good morning!

I am very happy to announce that my Art Journal Thursday video #21 is up on YouTube!

The supplies I used this week were:

Gesso
Dina Wakley Media Heavy Body Acrylic Paints: Tangerine, Magenta, Lime
Tim Holtz Distress Ink Re-inker: Peeled Paint
Alesa Baker Designs Wood Mounted Stamp: French Handwriting
Art Impressions Wood Mounted Rubber Stamp: Squiggly line (that’s what I am calling it)
Apple Barrel Acrylic Paint: White
Paper Towel that had mopped up various Dylusions sprays
Scissors
Uhu Glue Stick
Fineline Applicator filled with White Acrylic Paint
Black Pilot Multiball Pen – my new FAVE doodling pen!!!

If you watched this week’s video, you already know that I really didn’t have any kind of plan when I went into this week’s art journal spread! In all honesty, I just knew that I had to get an art journal video done for this week, but I was so tired from a week of not really taking very good care of myself sleep-wise, compounded with losing another hour of sleep due to daylight savings time, I wasn’t sure exactly how I was going to get this one done!

I decided to help get me into the arting mood that I would listen to some loud happy music, and it worked! Before I knew what hit me, I had found my stride, and was once again a very VERY happy girl! 😉

I had a lot of fun this week just putting down colors, doodling, and just really letting myself play! I find that when I revert back to my inner, kindergarten Chrissie, that I have a tendency to be really happy with my art journal pages!

This week was no different!!! As soon as I released my inner me, I found myself having fun, and pulling from a pile that I haven’t really played with in a while – and that was my stash of used paper towels, which may not seem like something to be proud of, but trust me, I am!!! I just LOVE finding new ways to use treasures from my stash!!

Anyway, I really hope you enjoyed watching this week’s video! I really hope that these weekly videos can, in some way, inspire you to try something new in your own art journals – that would be so AMAZING to me!!! 😉

What do you think of this week’s spread? I would LOVE to hear your thoughts!! 🙂

Also, if you have any ideas, or techniques that you might like to see me try in one of my future layouts, please let me know in the comment section and I will see what I can do to be accommodating! Also, I really do LOVE answering any questions you may have about art journaling, mixed-media, or anything you might have seen me do here! Please feel free to ask questions in the comments, and I will try and get back to you in a timely manner!!

Until next time!

Here is to a BEAUTIFUL CREATIVE life! 😉

If you want to have a different life, live differently!

Art Journal Thursday Video #21!

Good evening!

I am very happy to report that my 21st Art Journal Thursday video out on YouTube!

The art supplies I used this week were:

Tim Holtz Idea-ology Decorative Tissue Wrap: Postale
Uhu Glue Stick
3×5 Gelli Plate
Blick Studio Acrylic Paints: Cadmium Orange Hue, Primary Red, Phthalo Green
Apple Barrel Acrylic Craft Paint: White
Brayer
Art Advantage Double Ended Stylus
5 Miscellaneous Wood Mounted Rubber Stamps: one is from Great Impressions (3 concentric circles), one is from Inkadoo (Carte postale), one is from Delafield Stamp Company (XOXOXO), one is from Hero Arts (Painted Circle), and I am not sure where the last one is from, but it is the one with small doily design
Ranger’s Black Archival Ink Pad
Black Stabilo All Pencil
Uni-Ball Signo White Broad Pen
Scissors
Scarlet Lime Black Doodling Pen

When I started this week’s layout, I was determined to try something that I had felt failed miserably last week; and that was creating a background using my 3×5 Gelli Plate.

I felt like the reason this didn’t work for me last week was the fact that I didn’t limit myself to a selection of a handful of colors. That background ended up being so busy that there was no way that anything could stood out on its own in the foreground. This time I made sure to limit my colors to just three, not counting white!

As I was laying my color down with my Gelli Plate, I started seeing this layout as kind of a paper quilt, which made me start thinking about my mama, and my grandmother, and all of the strong women who came before me. It made me really happy to reconnect with those memories, and to understand just how blessed I am that I come from such a long line of really strong, and AMAZING women!

Thinking on the women of family, also made me think of a favorite song from my childhood, that has a way of popping up in my life at exactly the right moments. This song is called “This Little Light of Mine”. It has been showing up a LOT in my life over the past year, and it again this week. It reminds me that I need to shine my light, which is where my my sentiment came from this week. You may be the only light in the world someone sees today, make sure you shine bright!

I think this background turned out much better than my attempt last week, hands down! This week’s attempt has inspired me to try this again, but this time on an art canvas! I am thinking that this might be a really cool background for a new piece of artwork that I can hang in my new office at work!

What do you think? I would LOVE to hear your thoughts on this week’s art spread!! 🙂

Until next time!

Here is to a BEAUTIFUL CREATIVE life! 😉

If you want a different life, live differently!

Art Journal Thursday #20!

I realize this is better late than never, but I am happy to report that my Art Journal Thursday #20 has been posted out on YouTube!

The art supplies I used this week were:

3X5 Gelli Plate
Brayer
Blick Studio Acrylic Paints: Titanium White, Phthalo Green, Cadmium Orange Hue, Green Light Permanent, Primary Red, Primary Blue
Dina Wakley Stencils: Mod, Organic Shapes, Halves
Dylusions Stencils: Circles Large, Shattered Large, Triangles Large
Huey’s Mask Stencil: Bubbles
Liquitex White Gesso
Dylusions Spray Inks: White Linen, Vibrant Turquoise, Calypso Teal, London Blue, Fresh Lime, Cut Grass
Apple Barrel Acrylic Craft Paint: White
Uhu Glue Stick
Black Stabilo Pencil
Blue Stabilo Pencil
Ranger’s Archival Black Ink Pad

If you watched the video this week, you might notice that I was really struggling to get this spread to a point that I was happy with!

I also, generally, frown on completely whiting a page out and starting over…I usually am a firm believer that every spread is salvageable in some way or another! So, when I finally hit day three, try three, and I was still feeling really stuck, I knew that whiting the spread out was going to have to be my solution this week!

Although I felt the need to completely white out my backgrounds and start over, I really had fun just playing with my Gelli Plate and playing some with a few new stencils!

My final attempt at this spread, which is the one that I was finally happy with was so much fun to create. I think the reason that I felt I was finally successful was that I finally got out of my own head, and started to really just go with the flow! I think I was having so much trouble because I was overthinking what I was trying to do…I have a tendency to do that at times! 😉

I also think that where the genius of this spread shows up is in some of the close up photographs! I can say genius, right??? Yeah! I can do that! I just LOVE all the yummily-scrumptious color combinations that unexpectantly showed up!

I also really LOVE the very textured background that was created by all of the layers that I had inadvertently created with all of my ugly background tries! It has resulted in a very tactile friendly kind of spread, which I surprisingly LOVE!

See what I mean??? This green and blue are just AMAZING together!! I love the pop that it creates!

And somehow, I ended up with a few speckles of a deep burgundy, red – I am not sure how that happened, but I am really LOVING that too!! 😉 So, all-in-all, I think that after more than a few heartbreaking tries, this page turned into something that I can be very happy about! 😉

What do you think? I would LOVE to hear your thoughts on this week’s art spread!! 🙂

Also, if you have any ideas, or techniques that you might like to see me try in one of my future layouts, please let me know in the comment section and I will see what I can do to be accommodating! Also, I really do LOVE answering any questions you may have about art journaling, mixed-media, or anything you might have seen me do here! Please feel free to ask questions in the comments, and I will try and get back to you in a timely manner!!

Until next time!

Here is to a BEAUTIFUL CREATIVE life! 😉

If you want a different life, live differently!

Art Journal Thursday #19

Good morning! I am happy to announce that my Art Journal Thursday Video #19 has been uploaded out on YouTube! 🙂

The materials I used this week are:

White Gesso
Dina Wakley Mixed Media Acrylic Paints: Lime, Turquoise, Sky, Magenta, Lapis, White
Baby wipes
Dina Wakley Media Stencil: Essentials
Ceramcoat Acrylic Craft Paints: Green, OJ
Folk Art Acrylic Paint: Medium Yellow
Finalize bottle filled with white acrylic paint
Uhu Glue Stick
Uniball Signo Broad White Pen
Black Pilot Permaball Pen
Ranger Archival Ink Pad

This weeks video is rather short and sweet. That is mainly because I lost part of my video footage in the beginning…oops, sorry about that! In case you missed how I got this page started out, I coated my spread with white gesso by using a palette knife to scrape white gesso all over my spread and letting that dry completely. I then used three of Dina Wakley Media Paints to add color to my page, and before those colors dried, I used a stencil and baby wipe to pull some of the color up through the stencil. As I added another color, I made sure to overlap some of the previously stenciled areas to incorporate all of the colors together, and then continued with my stencil technique. I kept doing this until my spread was color!

That is why my video today begins!

I really like the way this spread turned out, at one point I wasn’t exactly sure where I was going with it! 🙂 But as always, it usually seems to turn out exactly as it is supposed to, and I really love it! 🙂

What do you think? I would LOVE to hear your thoughts on this week’s art spread!! 🙂

Also, if you have any ideas, or techniques that you might like to see me try in one of my future layouts, please let me know in the comment section and I will see what I can do to be accommodating! Also, I really do LOVE answering any questions you may have about art journaling, mixed-media, or anything you might have seen me do here! Please feel free to ask questions in the comments, and I will try and get back to you in a timely manner!!

Until next time!

Here is to a BEAUTIFUL CREATIVE life!

If you want to have a different life, live differently!

Art Journal Thursday #18!

I am happy to announce that my Art Journal Thursday Video #18 has been posted out on YouTube!

This week, the supplies I used were:

Dina Wakley Heavy Body Acrylic Paints: Tangerine, Lime, Magenta, Sky, Turquoise, Lemon, Lapis, and Blackberry Violet
the circular Dina Wakley Media Mask from her Graphic Shapes set
Baby wipes
Fineline bottle filled with black acrylic paint

This past weekend, I was very excited to have gotten the opportunity to take 5 classes taught by the lovely Dina Wakley, over a three-day period!! I learned sooooooo many new skills and techniques, and I am just raring to start incorporating them all, but for today I thought I would start by showing you all how to do a very simple technique that not only had I not seen before, it was one of my favorites!

You choose a mask or a stencil, something with not too small of holes, as well as not too large of holes either!

Spread a thick layer of acrylic paint to cover a surface roughly the size of you mask/stencil.

Lay your mask/stencil over the thick coat of paint, and rub all excess paint off with a baby wipe. (Many baby wipes, actually!) While you are doing this, you will transfer color onto your spread from the baby wipe – that is alright, just make sure to overlap your background colors to make it look intentional and to incorporate all of your stencil shapes together.

Just keep repeating this process until you have as many stencil/mask designs that you want! Make sure you do not clean your mask/stencil as you change from color to color. Part of the coolness of this effect is the color transfer that will happen when you go from color to color!

I hope you get a chance to give this technique a try!!! I KNOW I will do this one MANY times over!!! 😉

What do you think? I would LOVE to hear your thoughts on this week’s art spread!! 🙂

Until next time!

Here is to a BEAUTIFUL CREATIVE life!

If you want a different life, live differently!

Art Journal Thursday #17!

Good afternoon!

I am happy to announce that my Art Journal Thursday #17 video is up on YouTube!! 🙂

The materials I used this week were:

Folk Art Acrylic Craft Paint: Medium Yellow
DecoArt Crafter Acrylic Craft Paints: Leaf Green, Tuscan Red, Tropical Blue
Apple Barrel Acrylic Craft Paint: White
Petroleum jelly
Paper Towels
Card Stock (recycled business cards)
Hero Arts Decorate It Letter Stamps
Ranger’s Black Archival Ink Pad
Aleene’s Quick Grab Tacky Glue
Black China Marker

This week I had stumbled upon another YouTube video showing how to do this petroleum jelly resist, which ends up looking like peeled paint, and I just knew that I had to try this in my art journal this week! 🙂

One of my favorite artists is Rodney White, and I have 4 of his prints hanging in my house, 3 of those are in my living room! His artwork features a peeled paint effect, and I was determined to figure out how to do this, so I could use it in some of my artwork! 🙂

I found a few YouTube tutorials on how to do this, and was determined to give this a try! 😉

This technique turned out to be very easy, but there are a couple of things to keep in mind! You will need a lot of clean paper towels, and I mean A LOT!!! 😉 This will also make a bit of mess on your art table, with all of the little peeled paint bits – kind of reminds me of eraser shavings, but other than that…easy peasy!!! 😉

This is my new FAVORITE spread in my art journal!!! I ADORE all of the colors, and the final peeled paint effect is SCRUM-DIDDLY-UPMTIOUS!!!! After adding the brown color wash, and wiping it off, all of the layers had so much depth to them, that I could seriously see this being a very cool background on a piece of wall art!!!

What do you think? I would LOVE to hear your thoughts on this week’s art spread!! 🙂

Until next time!

Here is to a BEAUTIFUL CREATIVE life!

If you want a different life, live differently!

Art Journal Thursday Video #16

Good morning!

I am happy to announce that my Art Journal Thursday video #16 has now been posted out on YouTube!

The supplies I used today were:

Liquitex Gesso
DecoArt Acrylic Paints: Tropical Blue, Tuscan Red
Folk Art Acrylic Paint: Medium Yellow
Dina Wakley Media Heavy Body Acrylic Paints: Lemon, Ruby, Sky
Ceramcoat Acrylic Paint: Green (02662)
Golden’s Molding Paste
Palette Knife
Adirondack Metallics Acrylic Paint Dabber: Gold
Fineline Applicator (18 gauge tip) – 4 of them
Stencil – I apologize, I have no idea what this stencil is called or who created it – I remember purchasing this at Michael’s in a pack of 3 or 4 stencils

My inspiration for this spread was this cute little wooden wall hanger that I had found on sale at my local World Market. I immediately fell in love with the beautiful colors, and all of the interesting designs. I am thinking it looks very Moroccan in design, which I also LOVE!!

I wasn’t sure if it would be possible to translate this cute tile onto a two page art journal spread, the size difference was a little daunting to envision – a 4″x4″ tile versus a 22″x28″ art journal spread. BIIIIIIIIIG difference!! 😉Anyway, I really like the way that this spread has turned out!
The textures are scrumptious!And the little doodling designs turned out better than I expected. I am really in LOVE with my Fineline bottles!!! 😉
I also really REALLY like the color combinations! I would have NEVER used this mix if it weren’t for my inspiration piece!I also really like that in some parts of this spread, it really does look like this was painted on wood! Doesn’t it???

And the coppery-gold section in the lower left hand corner, is very texturally interesting too!

I really like how this page turned out! I may have to look for more inspiration pieces, in the coming weeks, to keep me arting out of my comfort zone!! 😉

What do you think? I would LOVE to hear your thoughts on this week’s art spread!! 🙂

Until next time!

Here is to a BEAUTIFUL CREATIVE life!

If you want to have a different life, live differently!

Just a Quick Post!

Good evening!

I just thought I would pop in and add a quick post!

I keep coming across a recurring theme in the signs that keep popping up in my world, especially this past week! I am a huge believer that signs are real and I believe that signs are little hints from the Universe to help you find the path that has been created just for you and to help you stay on that path!

This week, I keep seeing and hearing hints that self care is just as important to having a creative life as is the actual act of “Arting” (yep, that’s a verb in my world!) This has been a message that is trying hard to put itself front and center during almost every moment of my day!

So, in my new role as woman who consciously listens and acts on what her subconscious is trying to tell her, I have decided to try and put together a list of ways that I can incorporate self care into my already busy days! 🙂

Wake up consciously saying that “Today is going to be an EXCELLENT day!!”
Roll over and kiss my sweetie and take a couple of minutes to snuggle! That is a QUALITY way to start my day out on the right foot!
When I finally do get out of bed, take a few minutes to stretch, and take stock of how all the parts of my body is feeling!
Drink a cool glass of water as soon as getting out of bed as possible! HYDRATE! HYDRATE! HYDRATE!
Get your booty outside! Take a walk, chase any patch of sunshine you could find (it is Oregon after all!), this doesn’t have to be strenuous, just do it!
Take time to sweat, on purpose every day! I find that if I do this in the name of playing, than I have a much better time of it – swimming, jumping rope, playing ball, playing tag, racing my sweetie, dancing, playing on monkey bars, etc. etc.
Take some time, every day, to get quiet! I know this a hard one for some of you, but you would be sooooooo surprised what your soul will try to communicate with you when you just get quiet enough to hear it!
Be conscious about what you eat/drink all day! Fuel yourself with real, whole, nutritious foods!
Try to minimize stress, at the very least, do things that calm you to counterattack stress, such as meditation, yoga, nature walks, breathing exercises, etc.
Make time to play/laugh every day! This can be done with friends, co-workers, family, someone you meet at the grocery store – it doesn’t matter! Laughter truly is healing!
Pamper yourself – give yourself a manicure, or a pedicure, take a long luxurious bath, maybe with bubbles? How about using your favorite body cream, give yourself a deep conditioning foot rub, or how about treating yourself to a facial, deep conditioning hair treatment, or even a simple face mask!! Ooh! that really sounds good!
Cut some fresh flowers for your house!
Take yourself to bed early to catch up on that juicy book you’ve been wanting to read!
Call a friend that you have been wanting to catch up with!
Take yourself out for coffee, or a fancy lunch date!

This is just a short list of all of the possible self care activities you can try! I am sure you have a BUNCH you can ad to my list! Tell me in the comments what you would add! 😉

Here is to a Beautiful Creative (quality safe care) kind of life! 😉

If you want a different life, live differently!

Feeling Inspired!

Good morning!

I am feeling inspired! I am feeling empowered! I am feeling a great satisfaction in knowing that I am taking care of myself, in small ways, every day, little by little!

I ran across this video this morning, and could not WAIT to share it with you! 😉

Living a beautifully creative life does not only mean spending time being artsy, or creating masterpeices outside of yourself! It is also about creating the YOU that YOU want to be. It is taking care of yourself, in only ways that you may understand that you need taking care of! Me myself being a plus sized gal, I understand that it may not be fashionable to be a healthy thick girl, but honey, I am here to tell you!! Even at the size that I am now (I have recently lost about 70 pounds, but have about 55 more to go), I am far and away doing better than the old me who used to sit on the couch 24/7 like someone was going to come and take it away if I didn’t stay sitting on it!

Get up, get moving, take a walk, go swimming, ride a bike, find a way to play like you did when you were younger! Know that living a beautifully creative life is more than what you create art-wise, it is also about HOW YOU LIVE!!! So get out there and put some LIFE into your LIFE!! I am cheering for you (CAN YOU HEAR ME???) 😉

Here is to living a Beautiful Creative Life!! 😉

If you want to have a different life, live differently!

Art Journal Thursday #15

I am happy to announce that my latest Art Journal Thursday post is now up on YouTube!

The supplies I used this week were:

Golden’s Fluid Acrylic Paint: Teal
Delat Ceramcoat Acrylic Craft Paint: Pop Pink, OJ
Decorated deli paper, and cardstock
Golden’s Matte Light Gel Medium
Golden’s Matte Medium Bodied Gel Medium
Palette Knife
Balzer Designs Stencil: Blazonry
M Graham & Co Full Bodied Acrylic Paint: White Titanium
Hero Arts Artsy Circle Border Stamp
3 miscellaneous circle stamps – I don’t know brand or name
Stabilo Black Pencil
Paint Brush
Black Pilot Multiball Pen
Uhu Glue Stick
Dylusions Ink Spray: Calypso Teal

If you watched today’s video, you will already know that I did not have any kind of plan for today’s layout. I just knew that I had three or four colors in mind when I first started and I wanted to just let the page take me where it wanted to go!

I also knew that I had some leftover deli paper and cardstock pages that I had decorated using a Gelli plate that I wanted to see if I could somehow incorporate into today’s spread.

After getting all of my colors on my layout the way that made me happy, I then decided I wanted to use one of my previously unused stencils, to overlay all of the bright color with some white – to help tone it down!

Then I created black marks with my Stabilo pencil, and black doodling pen, and I must admit this page was turning out to be a very happy spread!!

I know that this week’s sentiment is very close to the sentiment from a few weeks ago, but this message just kept popping up in my head over and over, so I just went with it, and put it down! I am so glad that I did! 😉

I am just loving how bright and colorful this spread is!

Yep, it’s official – this spread might be my favorite to date! 😉

What do you think? I would LOVE to hear your thoughts on this week’s art spread!! 🙂

Until next time!

Here is to a BEAUTIFUL Creative life! 😉

If you want a different life, live differently!

Beautiful Creatives

Empowering your juicy life!

Category Archives: Motivational

Art Journal Thursday #22

If you want to have a different life, live differently!

Art Journal Thursday Video #21!

If you want a different life, live differently!

Art Journal Thursday #20!

If you want a different life, live differently!

Art Journal Thursday #19

If you want to have a different life, live differently!

Art Journal Thursday #18!

If you want a different life, live differently!

Art Journal Thursday #17!

If you want a different life, live differently!

Art Journal Thursday Video #16

If you want to have a different life, live differently!

Just a Quick Post!

If you want a different life, live differently!

Feeling Inspired!

If you want to have a different life, live differently!

Art Journal Thursday #15

If you want a different life, live differently!